Tag Archives: 日本 Japan

My life in Japan was by no means stable, especially during my initial arrival when I slept at several different places within the span of a couple weeks. Today, I will show you my room in the first apartment that I lived at for a decent length of time, from October 2016 until March 2017. Sadly, as the place did not belong to me, I only took photos of the room I stayed at and not of the entire apartment.

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First, here is the main view of my space. The shape of the room is a long rectangle, with a north facing window at one end.
I only had minimal decorations up as I expected this place to be a temporary stay, though the “temporary” ended up a little longer than I had imagined.

Originally, I was going to take a photo of a sakura tree, of which the flowers have mostly fallen off by now, as an example to show how things keep on slipping by in my current life. Spring came and the sakura bloomed. If it was me several years ago, I would have been excited, going around places taking photos of the flower to upload onto this blog. Even now, I reminisce about the moments I spent in Kyoto during spring 2012. This year, this time in Japan, I have not taken a single photo of them. The sakura petals have fallen and they are gone now. Much like my inability to take photos of the sakura on time, other things in my life simply keep on slipping by. The reasons and scenarios were various. Anyways, I thought I was too late to yet another event.

But today, I saw these flowers at a park nearby. I admit. I don’t know what these flowers are. However, they fulfilled the same role as sakura in my heart, beautifully vivid pink trees in full bloom during spring. This wasn’t quite what I had imagined, but this alternative will do. I dreamed of living together with friends in Japan, hanging out, buying things, and engaging our hobbies. My life right now isn’t quite what I had imagined… but perhaps… this alternative might do.//続きを見る Continue Reading//

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Continuing on my travel to Japan, I am now waiting at the designated gate in Taiwan. I have about 3 hours until my next flight to Japan. I spent the time getting a bit of rest and also typed on the blog. The waiting area was quite empty when I first got here, but soon filled with people after an hour. It turns out there was a flight to Korea ahead of the one to Japan.

Finally, the time has come for me to depart the United States, and begin my journey in Japan. I went out to dinner with my family, staying there at the restaurant until 10-ish when it closes. My flight was past 1 am, so there was plenty of time. My brother and I played a few missions of Phantasy Star Nova together on the PS Vita to pass the time.

Packing up was frustrating and in the end, it didn’t go well. I ended up with 2 large suitcases for checked baggage, in addition to a small suitcase and a filled-up backpack for carry-on baggage, while wearing a massive winter coat. At the airport, after checking in and saying goodbye to my family, I headed through security and waited at the gate for my flight at 1:40 am. Sadly, while lining up to board the plane, the airline staff checked the weight of everyone’s carry-on suitcase. Mine was overweight and had to be checked in. I tried so hard to keep certain things from being damaged, and now as a result of having to check it into cargo, they will be (and did) get crushed. I suppose the fortunate thing in this situation was that they didn’t check the weight of my backpack (which was way heavier) and I did not get charged any extra fees.

During my time abroad in Japan in 2012, I happened to come across a parked itasha themed after Working!!. Of course, I had to stop and take the time to shoot some photos. While taking the photos, a man walked up to me and suddenly said “写真は撮ってもいいですが、場所だけは公開しないでください”. Without time to think, I immediately answered ” はい” and the man walked away. I don’t know if that man was the owner of the car or if he was the person commissioned to customize the car for a client. In any case, I wasn’t discouraged from taking photos, so I proceeded to go crazy with my camera and got a good look at the itasha from every corner.

Now, I don’t know much at all about cars, so I don’t have any more to say. Please enjoy the photos.

I have spent 85 full days of my life in Japan. That is just a week shy of 3 full months in Japan. But now, it is time for me to leave. This trip to Japan was my first and it has given me a lot to think about. It will take time for me to really process the events on this trip and to see how my life might change from all this.

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In the late-afternoon, the Japanese family that I was staying with drove me to Haneda airport. I am really thankful because it saved me a lot of trouble with all of my luggage and way-finding. The scene above was taken as we were driving on the highway. I will miss this beautiful country.

Just like June a few months ago, this month’s loots will contain two parts due to me being in Japan for half the month and in the United States for the other half.

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In September, I only had two weeks of time left in Japan. I did most of my last shopping sprees in person, but I also ordered a few things online from Amazon that I couldn’t find in stores. Those Amazon boxes were designed to be incredibly convenient to open. So many mundane things in Japan continues to impress me despite having been here for almost 6 months already. Let’s continue to my total of loots.

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Although I do most of my shopping in person either in Nagoya or Nishio, there were a few items that I had to order online. In total, I had 3 packages. The biggest package was massive but very light as it contained a lot of empty space. The bulk of my shopping really was done in person though, so let’s see all of my loots together.

There is no single word that could accurately describe all my experiences in August. Reflecting back, my feelings are largely negative. I do think that being exposed to those experiences were important and there were good experiences as well. However, that doesn’t change the situation that I was unhappy with.

Last month, you saw the Japanese room that I was staying in. After 2 weeks or so, I cannot no longer sleep sanely in that room. The heat and bugs became intolerable. Instead, I grabbed my pillow and sheet, and then slept on cushions in the living room where there was an air conditioner. Continue Reading

Last month, I spent my first week in Okazaki. By far, that first week was long and filled with (good and bad) events. Continuing onto July, the remaining 3 weeks of the study abroad were still packed with activities, but the passage of time didn’t felt as long.

Something unexpected that happened was a room and roommate shuffle. While I was originally in a room with 4 other people, I got reassigned to a room with just one other person. To be honest, it was awesome. Continue Reading